A small commercial airplane trailing a message that said, "Take the statue down or we will," flew over Beaver Stadium for about three hours Tuesday.
The message is a protest against the bronze statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium, which has been surrounded with rumors of removal since Thursday, when Judge Louis Freeh released his investigative report on Penn State, saying Paterno knew of the child sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky and choosing not to report it to police.
Sandusky, the former defensive coach, was convicted in June on 45 counts of child sex abuse.
Freeh's report also implicated former university President Graham Spanier, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Interim Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz as having known about the sex abuse and chose not to report it to police.
The plane flew out of the Ridge Soaring Gliderport in Julian, Pa. this morning, according to Tom Knauff, co-owner of the Gliderport. Knauff said the Gliderport is very commonly used by banner companies to fly planes out of.
Jim Miller, owner of Drake Aerial Enterprises LLC, confirmed that the plane belongs to Drake Aerial, a banner towing company out of Genoa, Oh.
